This article argues the case for introducing new energy policies in Ethiopia that will ensure energy initiatives for rural development meet the desired expectations. A review of the rural energy sector in Ethiopia is presented. Rural communities have for centuries relied solely on traditional biomass energy sources, human and animal power. In addition, sample findings show that the basic stock ...

"In this paper, I examine the implications of the Rawlsian maximin criterion for optimal population size and intergenerational allocation of resource when fertility is endogenous. I show that whenever children are better-off than their parents in laissez-faire, then the size of the population and parental bequests are also optimal according to the Rawlsian criterion....I then show that by usi...

We study the behavior of output, employment, consumption, and investment in Germany during the Great Depression of 1928-37. In this time period, real wages were countercyclical, and productivity and fiscal policy were procyclical. We use the neoclassical growth model to investigate how much these factors contribute to the Depression. We find that real wages, which were significantly above their...

Medicare policy making now deals mostly with price-setting issues. However, as Warren Buffet has noted: "Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." Victor Fuchs's studies raise fundamental issues for a value-oriented Medicare program. Florida offers one of many regional patterns of Medicare mortality that are not yet adequately explained. Valued-oriented, evidence-based Medicare policies wo...

Many interventions that may have large impacts on health and health inequalities, such as social and public health policies and health system reforms, are not amenable to evaluation using randomised controlled trials. The United Kingdom Medical Research Council's guidance on the evaluation of natural experiments draws attention to the need for ingenuity to identify interventions which can be ro...

Over the last decade there has been a growing interest in exploring the unanticipated health impacts of social and economic policies designed mainly to improve well-being, reduce discrimination, maintain family stability and improve mobility for disadvantaged populations. Since many of these policies are closely linked to the channels through which ‘social determinants’ may impact health, this ...

European cities, in particular major cities with strong economies, attract immigrants from all over the world. As a result, urban populations have become increasingly heterogeneous in ethnic, cultural, and religious terms. The housing of migrants is a central issue that affects quality of life in general. Besides finding employment and gaining access to good education it remains a crucial aspec...

Holding local boards of health accountable presents challenges related to governance and funding arrangements. These challenges result in (a) multiple accountability pressures, (b) population health outcomes whose change is measureable only over long time periods and (c) board of health activity that is often not the key immediate direct contributor to achieving desired outcomes. We examined ho...

CONTEXT The robust relationship between socioeconomic factors and health suggests that social and economic policies might substantially affect health, while other evidence suggests that medical care, the main focus of current health policy, may not be the primary determinant of population health. Income support policies are one promising avenue to improve population health. This study examines ...